Hassel landed here five years ago to chase a job in PR after four years in Sydney. She says a lot of Aussies give Adelaide a bad rap but “I very much like living here”.

“Adelaide has exactly what the other bigger cities have to offer, just in a compact, more user-friendly way, not to mention affordable housing and limited traffic. And trust me I know what real traffic is like!

“The only negative to Adelaide’s size is that it doesn’t host many corporate headquarters, which can make it a little difficult professionally.

Alison Hassell moved to Adelaide from LA (after four years in Sydney) and landed her dream job, in marketing at Adelaide Zoo. She says Adelaide has everything all the big cities have, in a compact, more use-friendly way.

“Adelaide is definitely a small pond with a lot of fish vying for the same worm!”

Haythem says he and his wife were ready to jump into a smaller pond when they moved in 2013, especially after life in “busy Cairo”.

The pair had a few boxes — music, art, food, weather — and Adelaide ticked them all.

“Also, my wife was pregnant and we were looking for a good place to raise kids, a place for families and again, Adelaide was the answer.

“And I can tell you we loved Adelaide even more when we moved here.”

He admits trying to find a job when you don’t have local experience isn’t much fun but on balance the couple couldn’t be happier with their decision to move.

The point is while we should never stop working to make SA an attractive place for young people to live, the brain-drain as an economic emergency, I think, has been somewhat overstated.

Because while some of our best and brightest will seek adventure overseas, SA will continue to be enriched by talented migrants who have chosen to call our city home on purpose and to make a contribution here.

And best of all, they already know what it will take some ex-pats years abroad to find out — that the grass is always greener and that SA is actually a heaps good place to be.